Diploma & Internship

The way my grandmother was respected for her intelligence, admired for her perfect English diction. Theirs was the era taught by the British; they spoke in not only chic sassiness typical of Angela Maya, but correct English diction you would rarely find nowadays. Or was it how she strikes long-form division and multiplications with ease? I concluded I wanted to become a teacher like her.

Yet, I was curious about how things were made, what things were composed of, and how they got to be in place. And decided I would like to study the nature and composition of matter. Science. How do the amino acids structures that we draw from memory actually mint their protein structures, folding into just the right form?

As I couldn't enroll in university after my secondary education, a benefactor sponsored me for a Diploma course in Computer and Desktop Operations.

Superb lessons. Appropriately stimulating. We learnt how to efficiently run general day-to-day operations on computer including maintenance. Feels kinda nostalgic that managing and organising a desktop has become a rarity today; just a look at any PC and I can optimise the productivity from just reorganising files and folders.

We had intense practical studies on:

Microsoft Office Suite

PowerPoint and presentations — I gave myself a challenge of replicating NTA jingles with it. One particular project, I would import a Christmas light JPG and turn it into a fascinating myriad of pulsating multi-colour lights just with the PowerPoint colour, animation, and delay tool. The result was a Christmas video (MP4) done end-to-end by hand just with a JPG.

Excel and formulas — fast forward, I would use the knowledge without any accounting experience to create a perfect accounting balance sheet for one events company I managed.

Microsoft Access — we particularly used it for querying, data sorting and cleaning. I might think that BigQuery today was an abridgement of Microsoft Access + Excel capabilities.

CorelDraw and Adobe PS

Stood out with my raw skills proficiency in Adobe PS and CorelDraw that my tutors and fellow students nicknamed me 'Designer'. One major project task was to go out on the streets and pick any item to come replicate it. While others picked simple items like bread labels, I picked a Star Lager Beer can. It must be that I like doing hard things. All eyes on me: 'na you wan do pass abi?' From a blank canvas, I replicated first the design of the Star Lager Beer, and created a 3D image of the beer can. One of our tutors used it as our PC cover photo, and would tell anyone unsolicited that I did it.

Internship followed at a cool corporate document place where elites from individuals, and government members come to create and publish documents.

Work is done anywhere, even on dining tables.

On duty at the document centre.

University & Events Company Management

My mother, feeling proud, always showed passersby my result unsolicited. Lol! One particular man coincidentally sees my result most of the times, and gift me N50 for taking 1st position every damn time.

In my secondary school final year, I saw a mate at our house with her parents. It was then my mom reintroduced her dad. He was the benefactor who always gave me gifts for taking first position back in primary school. Coincidentally, me and his daughter were classmates at secondary school. She was even the President of our Press Club at one time, but I didn't know she was his daughter.

We both graduated. He saw my mom one day and asked her How's that your brilliant daughter, hope she is in Uni now, because my daughter is in level 2 now? My mom replied that I was still doing computer courses, while hoping for uni sometime. He asked I reach out to him. That motivated the uni dream to come sooner.

Two shots at University of Nigeria, Nsukka — applying for Pharmacy first choice, Biochemistry second choice twice. First scoring 239 in JAMB, 60 in aptitude test. Second one 217 in JAMB and 60 again in aptitude test. UNN could not do it. I had to settle for Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, where this benefactor Engr. Leo was a staff. Destiny, maybe. Because God used him to make so many things easier for me there.

By day I was committing to classes. At night I was having my preps. Sunday afternoons I was at Catholic Charismatic Fellowship. Other evenings, we were kabashing at the basketball court. In between I was sometimes too worried, and most times too cautious.

Then Senator Orti. This one support felt earned. For a stellar work performance at his document centre during my internship and retainer prior to university, he took kindly to me. And unsolicited, requested that I always come back to the office during school breaks. In assurance, he personally called upon a holiday break few days after he was informed I had not resumed for the holidays work. Thereafter, every holiday, it became my place. And upon school's resumption, I would receive salary, and a cash support. This added some ease for me.

From panic that I might drop out for tuition fee default to promptly paying the ¾ of the tuition requirement needed before the session's registration portal closes. The scope at which all these happened would always make me hail myself as a fantastic planner.

Events Company Manager

In 2017, I came highly recommended to manage an event's management company whose daily produce was bread. Other times, we planned, managed and executed events end-to-end from confectionaries to meals and decorations. This was my first shot at managing people and resources.

Before I came in, the business was struggling under stock debt, unpaid salaries, staff chaos, and no procedural operations. I fixed it: created accounting formulas in Excel from nothing but native intelligence and careful analysis. Cleared the debts first of all. Then cleared all staff arrears with the money I generated. And now the business was on a clean runway.

Peep our daily produce — the bread

On periodic events management duties

On periodic events management duties

I was assigned a driver, and drove my first car in that period.

I wasn't just the manager and accountant: I was one of the product distributors, did supplies procurement, multitasked in the kitchen to speed production up, and was the storekeeper. All staff would have long gone and I would stay up into the midnight taking stock and wrapping up cooled-down breads ready for the next day's deliveries. Looking back, sometimes it feels wistful that I didn't become rich from putting such hardwork in someone else's venture.

Had I committed such effort in a personal venture, I could be competing on the global stage right now.

Fulltime Commitment PTSD

I fell ill; a result of strenuous work life. And for the first time in my 2+ decades, I was on hospital admission. Four drips in one night. As I always closed accounts and wired money into the founder's account, there was no shishi on me. I was denied hospital admission until the bills were paid. Every message to the founder was left on read. If not for Uncle Kevin.

Month end. Two weeks through my illness and recovery, I resumed work and requested my salary. It was denied. I boast of an exceptional level of commitment: I deploy my ownership mentality, and high agency at tasks. I put my life on the line to make things work. I should perform like that again for a good ROI.

Eventually, I graduated with a CGPA of 4.29 and not a first class despite securing first-class GPAs .... Some really turbulent periods did tumble my final CGPA.

500 level final year student

400 level SIWES student

Quitting the company after graduation forced me to look for another opportunity. I got one in a printing press. Destiny! Here, I refined my design skills from mere document processing and publishing strokes to scale and print dexters. I became a print-designer. This would usher in my digital career at scale. My first gig was about N350,000 then in 2019, then another N250,000 and so on.

NYSC — Abia State

6:00am at Umunna Bende camp parade ground, Reverend Camp Director got on the mic. "Who is Eucheria Luke from University of Agriculture? See me after parade."

I wasn't at parade that morning. I was at OBS — Orientation Broadcasting Studio — where I was volunteering. Someone came and informed me. He added that after the call, corpers were seen rushing to claim me. Na unpaid job sef im wan give me ooo!

I had gone and introduced myself to him shortly after landing camp and volunteered to help in camp's official design needs, and lead a SAED training for graphics and printing. He was truly glad and therefrom took note of me.

Just a Girl. Serving and Carving.

"With this uniform, you can enter anywhere. Make good use while at it."

These were just the words that I needed to hear to start making moves. Proposal in hand. High agency moves. From the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry for Trade & Investment, Ministry of Youths & Sports Affairs, Abia State Diaspora Commission, all girls' schools within the State. I would seek partnerships and execute projects with these Ministries.

My thought: since I had no assured fallback, nor family backup, I have to do my best to make good connections, get some stronghold, and get up and going after my NYSC.

The feedback: You can't outmanoeuvre generations-long challenges in a jiffy. You can't beat certain kinds of systemic and environmental challenges by yourself. You can be the most intelligent. The most driven. The most entrepreneurial. One with the highest agency. But you're not meant to overcome just because you want to.

But I can!

The Wild Woman — Revelation 12

"An Uncultivated. Uninhabited. And Inhospitable region where God has set up a place for you to thrive." "No one else has done it the way that you are going to do it. And that's why it's your wilderness."

A mistake. These letters should not have been spoken. Because after marinating, it echoed and reverberated through my soul. I picked up the refrain and it became my constant companion, and my reference going forward. The voices of doubt and fear faded.

The Wild Woman Conference by Sarah Robert Jakes

Immediately after my NYSC POP - passing out parade, my former boss Senator Orti called to congratulate me heartily, and then particularly ask that I return to Makurdi, this time to become the office manager. He is one of Nigerian elites, a custodian of express nepotism.

But, I was now a Revelations 12 woman — a 'Wild Woman' eager to cultivate, inhabit and build my own region where God has set up a place for me to thrive like no one else (in my lineage) has ever done before. I was not thinking. I was led.

Man. Did I not so many times later, almost pick up my phone, call him and say 'Sir, please I am sorry, when can I resume'!

Sometime later, I put in my first ever job application at an SME-related organisation in Lagos, and received an offer, but couldn't make it. I had to take it that Umuahia was the place for me to calmly develop without as much rigours.

When you are from a background of strife, life has played you 9:0 from birth. Your family can never help you design your future; methinks they are rather fetching to scar the scary future 😢. Taking one step forward, and getting tugged 5x back is default feature. Then, you make a missed step? Oh, God! You just might spend a decade correcting it.

20+ Online Courses and Certifications

The truth is since 2020, I have been going through series of exploring my best self and unpacking. I thought that after a course or two, I should have decided the one: coding lessons in Python, digital marketing courses, project management and personnel management series, product management training, brand management courses, entrepreneurial courses and trainings. Master the one, and let the rest. But, I was meant to master them all.

And it makes all the sense in the world now .... It sure is hazy, so, I recommend only for mission-driven, earth-shakers backed by the invincible. But, I could recommend instead getting born by an enlightened, exposed, rich family that just directs and dictates your becoming with cash and soft care y'know ....

At NYSC Camp Umunna Bende

One of the camp pageantry activities

Corper Eucheria and Tarela

ADCOM — Cross-functional Operator

Guided under the mentorship of Reverend, I began a series of community development activities part of which was girlchild development programs. I sought and gained partnerships and collaborations across individuals and government including the Abia State Diaspora Commission.

We were going to execute a girlchild event with sponsors locked-in. And Covid happened. Because of the high confidence score of the event's success, having secured reputable sponsors, I actually didn't create a fallback plan against the live event, so when COVID struck, that became it.

However, this began an endearing relationship with the Abia State Diaspora Commission, and from 2020 to 2024, I would work in diverse roles from designer, office assistant, personal assistant, programmes manager, project manager and every other thing in between. Some of the notable programmes I led:

1. Traders support programmes: spontaneously meeting traders across different rural locations and giving them business grants.
2. Menstrual health hygiene education with sanitary materials donation across girls' schools.
3. State-wide spelling bee competition where we held intra-zonal contests amongst the 3 geo-political zones of Abia State: Abia North, Abia South, Abia Central, and thereafter an inter-zonal grand-finale in Umuahia, logistics, welfare and prizes all covered for the participants.
4. Several donations to charity centres and orphanages across the 3 Abia geo-political zones.
5. Scholarship award to indigent Abia students where I designed the application system that received 211 entries, led a reviewer team to review and select top 40 applicants which were later stripped down to top 10, organised the screening, mailed the selection offers to the 5 awardees, and held funds disbursal events.
6. Hands-on contributing to building, setting up, equipping, staffing, and operational coordination: working hands-on dirty day-to-day as project personnel for the first State children's hospital: AnneMarie Jackson Children's Specialist Hospital. Coordinated and executed a staff orientation including "Helping Babies Breathe" where we partnered with National Orientation Agency (NOA), Abia State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, and a US-based NGO Inspire Hope Foundation who sent their foreign team all the way down to help train the staff.
7. Distribution of medical supplies including consumables and heavy medical equipment to 100+ PHCs in Abia State. This was a planned programme executed twice, each lasting over 5 days.
8. Held the first Abians in Diaspora Summit where diasporans from over the world came to network and lead the plan for their respective engagements to build a better homeland.
9. Several support and books donations to the Abia State Library, helping to give a chance at resuscitating the dying books and library culture.
10. Planned and executed a Listening Skill Workshop for 100 Civil Servants in the Otti-led Abia State Government House as a response to observed deficiencies such as poor productivity, weakened team dynamics, and career stagnation with the aim to improve effective communication, conflict resolution, leadership, and productivity.

Hostclass

One day, someone reached out and introduced himself. Professor Dennis Ikpe, a professor of Statistics & Mathematics at Michigan State University. He said he was reaching out because I came highly recommended by the Executive Secretary of ADCOM. There he pitched me his vision for Hostclass, an edtech company, and asked that I be a part of it.

We worked for a 3-month trial validation period and thereafter I became involved across many roles to refine Hostclass' vision, positioning and penetration in schools. Our model was institutional-led. The problem was that the model of education across our educational system in Nigeria was lagging behind global standards, and with his experience teaching in sophisticated schools of South Africa, and United States, he had a buoyant vision which I loved.

Worked across multiple roles — Brand Strategist, Brand Designer, and Business Developer.

I leaned into brand strategies bearing in mind that edtech in emerging economies was a challenge. First was the customer discovery which I started with multiple enquiries, interviews, and strategy calls with the Founder, lecturers, and students. Then, the rebranding initiative: I rebranded the company's visual identity from a grey and blue colour to a lively orange colour, and from a Vertical "H" Icon to a zagged "H" iteration. A concept that appeals to the target audience who are mostly young students, and depicts revolutionizing learning experience. We developed a modern digital classroom for universities, replicated the school's exact course modules, embedded the software inside iPads, supplied iPads and software to teachers, and worked closely with them as they delivered their classes.

It held the promise of a fleek-style teaching and learning module that we acquired not just active lecturers from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and Abia State University Uturu, but loyal ones who spread the word easily. We also secured institutional partnerships including a school in Malawi.

I wasn't just pitching lecturers and students, but also prospective partners and stakeholders, and raised angel investment of $15,000 from another US-based African professor who loved the operational model - small, but a signal.

My other roles saw me redesigning the website touchpoints, landing page, and copy. After this, I handed the platform over to the LMS developers, a project manager, an operations officer, and moved over to lead another of his ventures 9Mile.

Behind the scenes — my thoughts sketch

Behind the scenes — my thoughts sketch

Behind the scenes — my thoughts sketch